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The Patrick O'Brien novels were based upon Admiral Thomas Cochrane, whom they called the "Sea King". He was the finest single ship captain in British history. But he was as O'Brien described him. Irreverent, disrespectful of his seniors, a risk taker. And a winner.

And we should introduce Pierre Delecto to Carlos Danger, don't you think?

Remember in 2012 when Sara was telling us how tech savvy Mutt's kids were (she may have specifically mentioned Tagg) and how Gaylord wasn't going to blow Team Rombley out of the water IT wise? That was probably the start of Pierre.

Washington criticized that decision, which it said recognizes that China uses state-owned enterprises to subsidize and distort its economy but contends the U.S. must use “distorted Chinese prices” to measure subsidies.

Happy Trafalgar Day! Eleven years ago we were in Greenwich looking at the bullet hole in Nelson's uniform right about the time he died (4:30 pm GMT). Only we didn't realize it was Trafalgar Day until an hour or so later.

My friend and I ate whitebait and drank ale in Trafalgar Tavern afterwards. A great day. I still have a really cool mug from the Royal Maritime museum - a replica of an original Success To Nelson mug in the museum collection.

I'd argue that he - like Carville - was never the genius he was made out to be. They're both like coaches that had everything go right and won an unexpected championship, and dine out on that for the rest of their lives, even if they never again come remotely close to winning in future seasons.

That said, as much as I wanted O'Donnell to beat Coons and for the GOPe to fight for its voters' chosen candidate, O'Donnell was a bit of a mess.

Maybe. But if she hadn't been openly sabotaged by Rove and Castle and the NRSC, she might have won anyway.

Further on Rove - the genius label, and the view that he somehow singlehandedly dragged Bush to victory, is something you see in Hollywood, too.

It's human nature to point to the one person in charge as the indispensable genius. Look at George Lucas. It's true, Star Wars would never have gotten made if not for him. But if not for all the folks around him who made it better (and in some cases steered him away from bad ideas), it probably would have been a flop.

On October 21, 1805, off the coast of Spain, the fleet of the British Empire, under the command of Horatio Lord Admiral Nelson, engaged and decisively defeated a larger French and Spanish Navy.

Previously, Admiral Nelson had lost his right eye capturing Corsica and his right arm attacking the Canary Islands. He captured six and destroyed seven of Napoleon's ships at the Battle of the Nile and successfully assaulted Copenhagen. However, Admiral Nelson is best remembered (and immortalized) for winning one of the greatest naval battles in history, The Battle of Trafalgar. The daring 47-year-old Nelson defeated Napoleon's [age 36] combined French and Spanish fleets, consisting of 33 ships with 2,640 guns off the coast of Spain.

Napoleon received fifteen million dollars two years earlier from selling 600 million acres to the United States [Louisiana Purchase], but it was not enough to change the outcome. Admiral Nelson's defeat of the French navy abruptly ended Napoleon's power at sea, and with it, his dreams of world conquest. The 90,000 French troops assembled on the coast of France were forced to abandon their plans of crossing the English Channel and invading Britain.

During the Battle of Trafalgar, cannonade and musket shot ripped apart ships at point blank range, killing or wounding nearly ten thousand. Admiral Nelson was fatally shot in the spine. He was carried below deck to the ship's surgeon where he died. Admiral Horatio Nelson's last words were: "Thank God I have done my duty."

[At the Naval Academy, the Plebe uniform has three cannonball buttons that represent those 3 battles, Corsica, Canary Islands and Trafalgar.]

I just watched this video of Devin Nunes. It was made while he was still running the Intelligence Committee, but it offers some insights into his interactions with Caniddate and then President Trump, and also some clues about how quickly the Intelligence Committees suddenly switched from saying there was no danger from the Russians to Russian Collusion.

Video at the link.

Devin has always gotten it ~ he's just aware that he's allowed to say it out loud. I love him.https://t.co/PH4pNEaP9Z

Maybe. I always thought the 2000 race against a fat mentally ill piece of shit with daddy issues should have been a landslide instead of a nail biter, but the more I see W being chummy with Slick maybe it turned out exactly right.

Some of The Horde credits Rove with turning Texas red which I thought was confusing correlation with causation.

Some of The Horde credits Rove with turning Texas red which I thought was confusing correlation with causation.

There might be something to that. Ann Richards was still a huge figure in Texas when W defeated her in 1994. We take the redness for granted (more or less) now, but it certainly wasn't the case when W arrived on the scene. Rove as W's campaign manager and advisor has to get some credit for that.

The irony is that it is the GOPe's feckless immigration blunders that has given the Dems their greatest shot at turning the state blue again. That and the seemingly infinite number of prog refugees from California that have been pouring in to the cities for the last 10 years.